Understand

Naomi Alderman, novelist who explores social and gender dynamics, reflects on how novels reveal inner lives and broaden access to knowledge. Sarah Maxwell, founder of Saucy Books, explains how romantic fiction creates emotional mirroring and pleasure in the bookshop setting. They discuss novels provoking public feeling, reading’s role in shaping empathy and social change, and how solitary reading reshaped societies.

Joseph Henrich, Harvard anthropologist linking literacy to cultural shifts; Naomi Alderman, novelist on digital culture and early literacy; John Burn-Murdoch, FT data reporter tracking reading trends; Maryanne Wolf, UCLA neuroscientist on reading’s brain circuits. They explore how learning to read rewires brains, the decline in long-form reading, technology’s impact on attention, and why early literacy and deep reading matter.

A teasing tour of reading’s decline and what might happen if it fades away. Scenes range from alarmed research on shrinking pleasure reading to the idea that reading rewired minds, cultures and politics. Listeners get hints of dramatic stories—book burnings, dragons and dark web rescue missions—plus what the series will investigate next.

As James Naughtie concludes his series about the ideas tying America's birth 250 years ago to the United States today, he examines freedom, asking whose freedom, and what kind?He begins in Gettysburg, attending a re-enactment on the battlefield made famous by an address from President Abraham Lincoln in which he asked whether the United States "could long endure". That question is being asked again now, as Americans experience profound disagreements over many of the ideas in this series - economic opportunity, justice, freedom; even what it means to be an American. As he hears, American history itself has become a battlefield. And so speaking to historians with different perspectives, and senior political leaders from both parties, James assesses how dangerous this moment is for United States.Producer: Giles Edwards

James Naughtie continues his look at the ideas tying America's founding to the modern United States, asking how 'justice' has been understood by different generations of Americans.In this third episode, James travels to Alabama in the American South, to understand how the Civil Rights movement sought to connect American reality with the promises in its founding documents. He hears from people in Texas on both sides of the debate about abortion, revealing how a movement built to oppose abortion rights brought millions of Christians into politics and dramatically shifted the politics of America's highest court. And in Midwestern Wisconsin, he hears how political division has come to the administration of justice itself.Producer: Giles Edwards

James Naughtie continues his look at the ideas tying America's founding to the modern United States, as he looks at what it means to be an American.In Chicago, he joins the Columbus Day parade - an exuberant celebration of Italian-American identity - and hears about the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to northern cities like Chicago. In Wisconsin, he visits the birthplace of the Republican Party, and in Ohio the Governor shows him the spot where Abraham Lincoln heard he had been formally confirmed as President-Elect. James considers how the social movements of the 1960s moved the centre of gravity of American politics from economic to social issues, with all that meant for political polarisation.Producer: Giles Edwards

James Naughtie examines the ideas tying America's founding to the modern United States.In this major new series marking America's 250th anniversary, James travels through time and across the landscape to discover how the Declaration of Independence embedded the idea of a country founded on what its authors described as 'self-evident' truths – that everyone’s inalienable rights included ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ In this first episode James begins with the 'pursuit of happiness' – the American search for opportunity. He begins on the site of the original gold rush in northern California, before journeying to farms and factories; small towns and big cities across the American Midwest. As he does, he reveals how from Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, to President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Americans have always seen the connection between economic and democratic freedom - the ability to choose their own fates, and the fate of the country. Producer: Giles Edwards.

Justin Webb looks back at the five big US foreign policy shifts from the Monroe Doctrine to Donald Trump. Over five episodes he and his guests look at how America’s approach to the world has constantly changed over time. This may help answer a really big question - how radical is the way Donald Trump deals with the world? Is he really an outlier in US history? Or do his actions reflect the changing patterns of American power?In this episode Justin discusses the Bush Doctrine with Melvyn Leffler, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Virginia and Bronwen Maddox, Director of the London based think-tank, Chatham House.Presenter: Justin Webb Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight Researcher: Helena Warwick-Cross Editor: Jon Bithrey Sound engineer: Tom BrignellCredit: Bush’s Graduation Speech at West Point courtesy of the George W. Bush Presidential Library

Justin Webb looks back at the five big US foreign policy shifts from the Monroe Doctrine to Donald Trump. Over five episodes he and his guests look at how America’s approach to the world has constantly changed over time. This may help answer a really big question - how radical is the way Donald Trump deals with the world? Is he really an outlier in US history? Or do his actions reflect the changing patterns of American power?In this episode Justin discusses the Reagan Doctrine with Kathleen Burk, Emeritus Professor in Modern and Contemporary History at University College London and Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London.Presenter: Justin Webb Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight Researcher: Helena Warwick-Cross Editor: Jon Bithrey Sound engineer: Tom BrignellCredit: Reagan’s State of the Union Address courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Justin Webb looks back at the five big US foreign policy shifts from the Monroe Doctrine to Donald Trump. Over five episodes he and his guests look at how America’s approach to the world has constantly changed over time. This may help answer a really big question - how radical is the way Donald Trump deals with the world? Is he really an outlier in US history? Or do his actions reflect the changing patterns of American power?In this episode Justin discusses the Nixon Doctrine with Professor Douglas Brinkley, who's the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University in Texas.Presenter: Justin Webb Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight Researcher: Helena Warwick-Cross Editor: Jon Bithrey Sound engineer: Dave O'NeillCredit: Nixon’s Silent Majority Speech/Richard Nixon Foundation